Surprise: The People Who Wrote the ObamaCare Bill Have Exempted Themselves from Its Provisions
This is John Lott, writing at FOXNews.com:
While everyone else in the United States — from the top corporate executives to the grocery store checkout clerk — will be forced to buy their insurance through heavily regulated state-run exchanges, the health care bill excludes one group: the [congressional] leadership and committee staff. Yes, that’s right. The very people who wrote up this bill are refusing to be included themselves. Given the narrow definition of “congressional staff” on page 158 of the health care bill, the Congressional Research Service memo believes that courts will not require “professional committee staff, joint committee staff, some shared staff, as well as potentially those staff employed by leadership offices” to go through the exchanges. President Obama and his family are also exempt from the law.
Is it possible that the executive staff had so little knowledge of how the private sector operates that it was unable to imagine a time in which private insurers have ceased to exist because ObamaCare regulators have made sure they can’t make a profit selling policies to those who do have to comply?
Wonder how they plan to exempt themselves from the resulting “public option” when it is the only game in town? Massive pay increases?
I heard on NPR that the Republicans added a provision that said that all members of the House and Senate had to enroll in Medicaid.
Now that would be awesome.
And I also think they should all have to do their own taxes.
And perhaps mow their own yards. But, I’m willing to negotiate on this last point.
ya these smuck don’t have to pay all the tax and garbage thats in this deathbill..and they laugh at us because they will have more tax money they can waste and we’ll pay through the nose for everything..IMPEACH THEM ALL…
I didn’t know that employer plans would be purchased through the exchanges. My impression is that the exchanges were intended to sell to individuals.
Too bad it passed, I just figured out how to get people to pay their bills. If they don’t pay their bills, then let all aspects of confidentiality expire for that one visit.
The exchange is for individuals. Not sure if some small businesses can send their employees to the exchange. But if they do, there are no subsidies for them.
Obama’s ability to get our idiot congress to follow his ridiculous socialist notions should remind us of another charismatic leader that led his country to world war and the murder of millions of innocent people. Lest we forget.
This is truly scandalous. Do they still allow tar and feathering? If not, they should.
I was watching the Sunday talk shows this morning and guess what the MSM forgot to discuss. This very fact. Thank God we have this blog.
The entire premise of this posting is off base. “from the top corporate executives to the grocery store checkout clerk — will be forced to buy their insurance through heavily regulated state-run exchanges” is simply false. If you work for a large corporation that supplies you with health care insurance, then that remains in effect. The only difference is the company decides to change the policy, then it has to meet some minimum requirement, which I’ll bet most policies already meet – No exchanges! As for the checkout clerk, they are more likely to currently lack company supplied insurance, so for them the exchange may turn out to be a godsend. I don’t understand why the people who don’t like this bill have to lie about what it contains.
I don’t think John Lott is lying. But artk makes an interesting point. Most CEOs — indeed, most high income people, period — will not be in the exchange. They will get no subsidies there, but they will benefit from the tax law’s exclusion of employer paid premiums from taxable income.
For reasons I will write about in the future, I think there will be a huge quality problem in the exchange. So it will be something knowledgable people will want to avoid.
So it does not surprise me that the guys who wroted the bill don’t want to be forced to be in the exchange.
November 2, 2010 – Vote ‘em out! Stop the rubber-stamp Congress!
Tnen, urge your new Senators and Representative to repeal ObamaCare.
November 6, 2012 – Vote out the “Dear Leader” and other incompetents.